ENTECH in Auckland today!

New Zealand has enthusiastically embraced its own ENTECH, with over 300 trade now in attendance at the AOTEA centre at Auckland on the final stop of the roadshow. Attendance has been well in front of the first ENTECH held two years ago, with 140 at Christchurch and 190 at Wellington. Around 55 product specialists from 24 exhibitor firms have been busy all day at all three shows.

The Roadshow is ‘right sized’ for NZ, with stand sales capped to keep the scale right. A new ‘ENTECH CAFE’ zone on the trade show floor with all day free barista coffee was so successful it will now feature at all ENTECH tours, in Australia and the USA. Another new small initiative proved a big hit in NZ, hot chips at Happy Hour. Maybe it was the temperate winter weather, but hot chips will be mandatory henceforth.

ENTECH is now completely focused on trade with school and student attendance only allowed individually. The vast majority of trade attending report that they have purchasing authority, with the data from over 900 NZ registrations indicating an industry worth north of NZ$90 million, spread over professional lighting, audio, video and staging. This compares with the Australian industry which is valued at over A$400 million.

After happy hour today, which starts at 4.30pm Auckland time, the show closes at 6pm and the exhibitor equipment is all unloaded at Oceania, who are acting as freight and logistics agents for ENTECH. The New Zealand roadshow is held every second year in winter.